I've been doing some stories on Jim Barber (a California
racer from the 60s and 70s). Jim Barber made his name in SCCA
"regional" racing in the San Fransisco Region.
Although faster than most of the "professional"
racers, financing was always a barrier to competing
effectively in the Trans-Am and IMSA race series.

Jim's early background included racing one of the
factory-built center-seat RSK cars. Jim began to attract
attention while riving Ralph Wood's Porsche RSK, one of
seven Porsche RSK cars that came with center-seating and one
of only two that had been factory-backed cars. These
center-seat RSKs were actually European factory Formula 2
cars which after winning in Europe had been imported to the
USA. Jim won his class in the 1963 SCCA Series in this car,
but when he broke his wrist in a motorcycle accident he was
unable to continue in 1964. The car continued to be raced
with Steve Froines as driver, with much success. The car can
currently be seen in its fully restored state in the Collier
Museum in Florida.

In 1965 moved over to Corvettes. He bought Herb Caplan's
1963 Z06 coupe. He then bought one (two) of Ron Kaplan's
AMC Trans-Am Javelins. Subsequently he purchased Herb
Caplan's 1968 L88 and, with support from Phyllis Stiles,
ran the SCCA regional and nationals series for several years.

I'll be doing more on this story in the future but I
thought you might like to have this short note, in the
interim.